This Blog is updated to show current events that might lead up the the next World Confrontation between World Powers and possible escalation points around the Globe.

Infolinks In Text Adds

click and like

click on banner and like

Please Donate Today

We don't receive any corporate sponsorship at the moment and can really use any donations you wish to give us. Even the smallest contributions can really help us. You can donate to us, directly to our Paypal Account. Thank you for any support you can give us.

Translate

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Syrian chemical arms saga raises questions about Israel

The U.S.-led drive to force Syria's beleaguered regime to surrender its
chemical weapons has raised questions about the arsenal of chemical and
biological arms Israel has reportedly stockpiled and the activities of
the secretive Israel Institute for Biological Research near Tel Aviv.
Israel signed the Chemical Weapons Convention on Jan. 1, 1993, when the
treaty took effect. But it has never ratified it, which would have
committed the Jewish state to international inspections and refraining
from violating the treaty.
Syria, which reputedly has one of the world's most extensive chemical
weapons arsenals, never signed the convention, but under international
pressure now says it's prepared to do so.
Amid the international controversy over Syria's alleged use of deadly
nerve agents the United Nations says killed more than 1,000 civilians
Aug. 21, The Jerusalem Post reports the government of Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu is preparing in case Israel is asked to submit to inspection.
The Israelis have never admitted or denied having chemical weapons, and
have maintained that ambiguity amid the furor over Syria's chemical
arms.
Haaretz quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Vigal Palmor as saying Israel
would not ratify the convention as long as other states in the region
that have chemical weapons arsenals threaten it.
The U.S. journal Foreign Policy claimed Sept. 9 a newly discovered
Central Intelligence Agency estimate written in 1983, and found in the
Reagan Library states U.S. spy satellites found "a probable ... nerve
agent production facility and a storage facility ... at the Dimona
Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert" south of Tel Aviv in 1982.
"Furthermore," the document says, "other [chemical weapons] production
is believed to exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry."
It noted: "While we cannot confirm whether the Israelis possess lethal
chemical agents, several indicators lead us to believe that they have
available at least persistent and non-persistent nerve agents, a mustard
agent and several riot-control agents ... with suitable delivery
systems."
It has been widely believed for years that Israel's alleged chemical and
biological weapons program is centered on the Israel Institute for
Biological Research, a highly classified complex in Nes Ziona, 12 miles
south of Tel Aviv.
The fortress-like structure is ringed by high walls and orchards with
state-of-the-art surveillance and warning systems manufactured by Israel
Military Industries.
Along with nuclear reactor at Dimona in the Negev, the institute is Israel's most top-secret installation. All mention by the Israeli media is banned.
But the liberal daily Haaretz reported in 2011 the institute is staffed
by around 300 scientists and technicians and works closely with the
General Security Service, Israel's internal security agency known as Shin Bet, and the Mossad, the foreign intelligence service.
These two agencies have assassinated scores of Israel's leading Arab
foes over the years, reportedly including Wadie Haddad, operations chief
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was killed by
Belgian chocolates, for which he had a great fondness, that had been
laced with a slow-acting poison developed by the institute.
A month later, on March 28, 1978, Haddad, one of the most feared
Palestinian leaders, died in an East German hospital where he'd been
diagnosed with leukemia. The real cause of his death did not emerge
until 32 years later.
On Sept. 27, 1997, two Mossad agents tried to assassinate Hamas leader
Khaled Meshaal in Amman, Jordan, with a lethal gas called fentanyl,
reportedly developed at Nes Ziona.
Meshaal survived, but only because King Hussein forced Netanyahu, then
serving his first term as prime minister, to provide the antidote in
exchange for the return of the two would-be assassins who'd been
captured by the Jordanians.
On Oct. 4, 1992, an El Al Boeing 747 freighter crashed at Amsterdam and
was found to be carrying cargo that included three of the four
precursors for sarin, the lethal nerve gas Syria reportedly used in
August.
Jean Pascal Zanders, a senior research fellow at the European Institute
for Security Studies, noted in a November 2012 paper: "Although the
compound has several legitimate uses, the secrecy with which the
investigation of the accident and the recovery and clean-up operation
were conducted, fed speculation over its true purpose."http://www.spacewar.com/